December 04, 2017

As the holiday season approaches, there will be heightened DUI enforcement on the roads of Pinellas County. In December 2016, Florida Govenor, Rick Scott, proclaimed December as Impaired Driving Prevention Month in Florida. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles further implemented this declaration into their annual campaign calendar.

Our DUI Defense team is often contacted by clients who were driving home from a holiday party in the St. Petersburg or Clearwater areas. For these reasons, we have compiled the following tips to make sure that you don’t find yourself on Santa’s naughty list this holiday season:

Do be polite with the officer. No matter how well you do on the roadside field sobriety tests, if you fail the “attitude test,” you are likely to be arrested.

Don’t be afraid to exercise your rights – including your right to remain silent. If you are asked an incriminating question about your alcohol consumption, you may absolutely decline to answer and request an attorney.

Do have all of your vehicle documentation in an easy to find place. Law enforcement often concludes that a driver’s inability to locate their license, proof of insurance and registration is a further sign of impairment.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you have to perform the roadside field sobriety tests. These roadside tests are not mandatory. (See: Refuse the Field Sobriety Test?) You cannot lose your driver’s license if you decline to take pre-arrest roadside field sobriety tests. These tests are very difficult and designed for failure. However, be forewarned that if you decline to take these field sobriety exercises, you are likely to be arrested. Nevertheless, in our experience, if the officer is asking you to perform these tests, he has likely already made up his mind to arrest you.

Do remember to check to make sure your headlights are on – especially if you parked your car at a valet. Valet drivers are notorious for changing headlight settings from “automatic” to “off.” Other drivers may forget to activate their headlights when pulling out of a well-lit parking lot. Obviously, driving without headlights at night is an open invitation to be stopped by law enforcement.

Don’t travel with alcohol containers in the passenger compartment of your vehicle. During this time of year, it is quite common to open a bottle of wine at a holiday gathering, but not finish it. If you insist on taking the remainder of the bottle home, cork it and place it inside of your trunk, and out of the view of police officers. Having an open container of alcohol in the passenger compartment of vehicle will cause the police officer to believe that not only were you driving after drinking alcohol, but that you were drinking while driving.

Do post your bond right away if you are booked into the Pinellas County Jail for a DUI. The detention deputies will likely tell you that there is a chance that you will could be screened to be “released on your own recognizance” (ROR) without the need for you to post bond. If you do not post your bond quickly, you will be forced to appear before a judge the following morning at an “Advisory Hearing.” Our office has noticed a trend that at this hearing, DUI defendants are often being ordered to wear a Continuous Alcohol Ankle Monitor (CAM) after meeting with the judge. The cost of this monitor can sometimes exceed the amount of the original bond. For that reason, we would encourage you to post a bond, so that you do not have to shoulder the risk of additional expense and being branded with this scarlet letter.

Don’t think that your cooperation in readily submitting to a breath test will translate into leniency by the court system. Remember, if you are being asked to take a breath test, you have already been arrested. If you arm the State with a high breath test result, this could make defending your case much harder. In fact, a breath test reading of .15 or higher carries mandatory enhanced penalties under Florida law. On the other hand, if you have only consumed a small amount of alcohol and you are confident that you are under the legal limit, by all means, you should submit to the breath test. This could provide you with strong affirmative evidence of your innocence.

Do understand the ramifications to your driver’s license and criminal record if you take or refuse the breath test. If you are a first offender and refuse to take the breath test, your license will be suspended for one year. If you are a first offender and you take the breath test, and have a result over the legal limit, you will lose your license for a period of six months (Pro tip: the police usually will only tell you that you will lose your license if you refuse to take the test, and leave out the part that you will also lose your license if you blow and are over the legal limit). If this is your first DUI arrest, you will be immediately eligible for a hardship license regardless of whether you take the breath test or not. If you have previously refused a breath, urine or blood test and suffered a resulting suspension of your license, you need to know that your second refusal will a) result in an additional first degree misdemeanor charge of “Refusal to Submit to Testing” and b) will result in an 18-month suspension of your driver’s license, during which you will be ineligible to obtain a hardship license.

The DUI defense attorneys in our office are former state prosecutors and have nearly 25 years of experience representing individuals charged with this offense. We limit our legal practice to aggressively defending individuals charged with Pinellas County DUI and Criminal Defense matters.

Call our office today to discuss the unique facts and circumstances of your case. This consultation is free.